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New
Quality Seal Empowers Consumers
28
January 2000
by Wyn Snow, Managing Editor
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How
can consumers gauge the effectiveness of a dietary supplement?
A new quality seal helps separate the wheat from the chaff.
ConsumerLab.com, an independent testing lab based in White
Plains NY, is testing products for the presence and and levels
of compounds that have proven effective in clinical research.
Those that pass the test are then published on their web site:
www.ConsumerLab.com.
Also, producers of passing brands can purchase a license to
print the ConsumerLab quality seal on the labels and literature
of approved products.
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Copyright
1999 ConsumerLab.com; reprinted with permission.
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Testing
answers question: Is this product effective?
Finding
out if a branded product is effective is a challenging task -- much
more difficult than determining if product potency levels and labeling
match. Both herbs and derivative products are complex substances
with many dozens of chemical compounds.
Which
are responsible for the health benefits that an herb provides and
should therefore be present in products? Dr. Tod Cooperman, President
and Founder of ConsumerLab.com, has a straightforward answer to
that question:
"We
use the best scientific knowledge that's available," Dr. Cooperman
says, "both on these products and for the test methods we use. First
we look at clinical research from around the world. In particular,
we find out what levels of bioactive compounds are in the substances
that have proven effective in clinical trials. Then we hold products
to standards established by this clinical research."
As
for which test methods to use, ConsumerLab takes an equally rigorous
approach, selecting among methods published by the Institute for
Nutraceutical Advancement (INA), U.S. Pharmacopeia (USP), the Complete
German Commission E Monographs: Therapeutic Guide To Herbal Medicines,
and others.
The
names of products that pass these tests -- both the manufacturer
and the brand names -- are posted on their website: www.ConsumerLab.com.
Also, products that pass are eligible to license the ConsumerLab.com
quality seal and print that seal on their labels and product literature.
First test results: Gingko biloba
ConsumerLab.com chose ginkgo biloba for its first round of testing,
purchasing 30 brands from . . .
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